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Talk:Pyrrhos
I always thought it wrong that the last time we saw Pyrrhos was simmering in his bitterness at having been defeated by Krispos. Krispos owed much to him and they should have had a reconciliation somewhere along the line. Turtle Fan 21:17, January 17, 2011 (UTC) :Not having read the Krispos saga, I'll take your word for it. TR 21:28, January 17, 2011 (UTC) ::In brief, Pyrrhos is an abbot who has Krispos show up at his doorstep one night. Phos tells him to take the young stranger under wing and Pyrrhos sends him to his cousin, the aristocratic Iakovitzes. Iakovitzes hires him as a servant and Krispos rapidly climbs the ladder till he ends up moving to the household of the emperor's uncle. The emperor's uncle decides Krispos will be useful in gaining influence over the emperor himself and positions Krispos in the imperial household with the idea that he would be an extension of Petronas's already considerable influence therein. Krispos proves surprisingly independent and ends up as Petronas's enemy, and actually wins. Then he pisses off the emperor himself. The emperor tries to kill him with a nasty spell but ends up killing himself instead. Krispos then seizes the crown for himself. Through it all Krispos keeps in touch with Pyrrhos and uses him as something of a spiritual mentor. ::The patriarch presides over the coronation ceremony, but this patriarch, Gnatios, was buddy-buddy with Petronas, who should be emperor by right of primogeniture, since Anthimos died with neither children nor siblings. Gnatios starts conspiring with Petronas so Krispos dismisses him; patriarchs serve more or less at the emperor's pleasure. Krispos installs Pyrrhos as patriarch. Pyrrhos is loyal to Krispos politically but keeps trying to push the church far into the fundamentalist camp by giving firebrand sermons and what the Pope would call encyclicals and bulls. He also dismisses a number of priests and monks, including several whose congregants wield considerable political, social, and economic influence. Krispos keeps asking Pyrrhos to moderate his behavior and Pyrrhos keeps saying he will but what he considers moderation doesn't go nearly far enough to alleviate the social strain caused by his radical reforms. (Or maybe they're counterreforms? I haven't read the Videssos stories set in other eras so I really couldn't say.) Finally Krispos maneuvers Pyrrhos into resigning and replaces him with Gnatios, which turns out to be a mistake when Gnatios starts plotting against Krispos again. Pyrrhos is hopping mad and starts preaching against Krispos, publicizing the heretofore secret that Krispos had been carrying on an affair with Dara while Anthimos was still alive. Krispos sees danger in this getting out and also sees danger in forcibly silencing a former patriarch, even an unpopular one. So he makes Pyrrhos a laughingstock instead. ::All well and good, but that's the last we see of Pyrrhos, ever: going back to his abbey to sulk, dripping wet, presumably wishing wholeheartedly that Krispos were dead. I know close relationships that are broken in real life are sometimes never repaired; I've had one or two myself. But I read novels to get away from the ugliness of real life, you know? Turtle Fan 02:15, January 18, 2011 (UTC)